Teaching Grammar: What Really Works (2010)

Part I. The Fundamental Things Apply

Chapter 5. Links: Conjunctions and Prepositions

For students to become skillful sentence crafters, they need to know how to use the full toolbox of linking devices. We will break down the four kinds of words that can be used as joiners (conjunctions). Then we’ll show how students can enrich their sentences by linking nouns, pronouns, and nominal groups to the rest of the sentence by using prepositional phrases. (We could have considered prepositional phrases along with modifiers, as they do act as either adjectives or adverbs.)

Teaching about Conjunctions: Common Hitching Devices

Figure 5.1 on page 72 is a visual that lays out the four kinds of words that can join. We’ll consider each of the four.

Columns One and Two: Coordinating and
Subordinating Conjunctions

Thanks to Grammar Rock, students are familiar with the term conjunction, but the term coordinating throws them, and they are even more confused when we introduce the term subordinating conjunction. Teachers, too, get a little heartsick at the terms coordinating and subordinating in front of conjunction. This is when we hear Do we really have to teach all these terms? Whether your students need to differentiate between coordinating and subordinating conjunctions and whether they need to use these terms at all is a matter of controversy, but we’re hoping that you are not withholding these terms (and, more importantly, the concepts they represent) because of any trepidation on your part. So right here and right now, we’d like reduce any resistance you might feel to using these particular terms.

Figure 5.1

Yes, there’s a very important distinction between coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions. Each is licensed to do certain work, and only that work. Coordinating conjunctions are licensed to join independent clauses to create compound sentences, and some coordinating conjunctions—most commonly and, but, or, nor—can join words and phrases together within a clause. Coordinating conjunctions usually require a comma when doing the heavy lifting of fastening independent clauses together to create a compound sentence. (Should the comma alone attempt the task, we call the result a comma splice. If the clauses are fairly short and there is no chance of misreading, then the comma can take the day off.)

One of the most common misconceptions, even among teachers, is that a long sentence is a run-on sentence. The truth is that we determine that a group of words constitutes a run-on sentence not by length but by whether multiple clauses are properly joined by the hitching devices available.

We’re all familiar with the acronym FANBOYS to represent the coordinating conjunctions. We like this acronym: it is a complete, reliable mnemonic and many students come to us already trained in it. The only drawback is that the very first letter, F, stands for for, which might cause a little trouble only because its use is not very modern, certainly not used in ordinary conversation. However, for as a conjunction meaning because does appear frequently in literary text.

As you’ll see in the visual, we’ve stretched the truth a bit by demanding that the comma be used along with the coordinating conjunction when forming a compound sentence. As we mentioned, there are many times in informal text when that comma doesn’t show up for work, and no one seems to mind. However, because it wouldn’t be wrong to include the comma, we’re erring on the side of caution and simplicity by giving students a rule that they can break without too much consequence when they think they have a good reason to omit the comma.

A sentence may already contain so many required commas that adding one more to accompany the coordinating conjunction may weigh it down. In such cases, the inclusion of the comma in a compound sentence is a judgment call.

A good visual for the concept of a coordinating conjunction’s role in creating a compound sentence is a weight lifter. A weight lifter holding a barbell with both hands over her head represents the comma with the coordinating conjunction that joins two independent clauses. But the weight lifter

lifting a dumbbell with a single hand is doing a smaller job: She represents the coordinating conjunction that joins words or phrases within the clause. She does not need the assistance of the comma.

Spend some time analyzing the word coordinate as you teach coordinating conjunctions. The prefix co- should be familiar to students, and they’ve probably been using the words coordinated and uncoordinated to evaluate performance on the playground for years. Make that connection. Have students associate the physical gesture of bringing things together as they say the word coordinating. Hold off moving on to subordinating until you feel that students (and you) are perfectly at ease talking about coordinating conjunctions. (In Part Two of this book, we’ll be talking about embedding grammar lessons into the writing process, and the sooner your students become familiar with the language of the Hitching Devices visual, the better.)

When it’s time to move on to the second column in the Common Hitching Devices chart, start by reviewing what clauses are. It is essential that students can pick out clauses and know whether a sentence has just one clause or several. This is because there are specific ways to join clauses. We know that some teachers are uncomfortable talking about clauses, so we’d like to demystify the term for you with the following Q&A:

Q:What is a clause?

A:A clause is a subject-predicate pair.

Q:What is the difference between a clause and a phrase?

A:A phrase is a group of words that stick together, but a phrase does not consist of both a subject and a predicate. A phrase can be a noun plus its modifiers or a verb plus its modifiers.

Q:What is the difference between a clause and a sentence?

A:If a clause can pass any of the “complete sentence tests,” then it is a complete sentence. (See Chapter 1, pages 6 and 7.)

Q:What kinds of clauses are not complete sentences?

A:A clause is not a sentence when it begins with a conjunction or relative pronoun.

The following examples show the difference between clauses that are sentences and clauses that are not sentences:

Sentences in authentic text that begin with coordinating conjunctions are extremely common and acceptable as sentences to most readers. However, technically, sentences beginning with coordinating conjunctions do not qualify as complete sentences. Many teachers object to sentences that begin with coordinating conjunctions because students overuse this style. We encourage you to limit, but allow, sentences that begin with coordinating conjunctions if the student is using the coordinating conjunction to emphasize a connection and if the student uses this technique sparingly.

Teaching Procedure: Distinguishing between
Phrases and Clauses

Distinguishing between phrases and clauses is a matter of training the ear and the eye. To train the ear, play games in which teams hear a group of words and have to hold up cards that say either phrase or clause. To train the eye, have students play games in which teams determine how many clauses they see in a block of text.

Subordinating Conjunctions

You can find plenty of lists of subordinating conjunctions. We think that complete lists of subordinating conjunctions are overwhelming to novice writers. We prefer a more limited list of the most common subordinating conjunctions, such as the one shown in the Common Hitching Devices visual.

Many subordinating conjunctions can also function as other parts of speech, so when is a subordinating conjunction a subordinating conjunction and when is it an adverb? The answer depends on what comes after and on its function in the sentence. If a clause comes after, then it is a subordinating conjunction; if a phrase comes after, then it is a preposition or an adverb.

Although students have been speaking in complex sentences since long before they started school and even preschool, you need to teach the form explicitly. You certainly want your students to include complex sentences in their writing because complex sentences are containers for relationships that are more sophisticated than relationships that a compound sentence can contain.

A complex sentence that has a subordinating conjunction is reversible. The main clause can go first, in which case no comma is needed before the subordinating conjunction:

My dog ate my homework because it must have looked like a chew toy to him.

There’s a reason for not needing the comma: The subordinating conjunction itself signals to the reader that one clause is finished and another related one is about to start. The writer can also choose to begin a sentence with a subordinating conjunction, in which case a comma is needed between the subordinate clause and the main clause:

Because it must have looked like a chew toy to him, my dog ate my homework.

And there’s a reason for this as well: Without the comma, the reader would not be able to separate the two clauses.

Many (too many) teachers give students the incorrect information that they are “not allowed” to begin a sentence with the word because. We understand that these teachers wish to avoid the sentence fragment that results when the subordinate clause is not followed by its main clause (Because it must have looked like a chew toy.) However, to tell students that they are not allowed to begin a sentence with because doesn’t do anything to advance students’ syntactic development and, in fact, truncates it. Let’s remember that we want students to write complex sentences and that complex sentences are reversible. Let’s teach them to pay attention to syntax so that if they do write a sentence that begins with because, they understand that the sentence must have two parts: a subordinate clause (that’s the because part) and then a main clause.

To distinguish the coordinating from the subordinating conjunctions, it may help to point out that the coordinating conjunctions do not have the capacity for reversibility, as the subordinating conjunctions do. If we say My dog ate my homework, so I don’t have it (or and I don’t have it), we cannot use the coordinating conjunction to reverse the clauses: No one would say *So I don’t have it, my dog ate my homework. Nor would anyone say *And I don’t have my homework, my dog ate it or *But I don’t have my homework, my dog ate it. It is not in the coordinating conjunction’s job description to be allowed to pull a clause to the front of the sentence. However, it is in the job description of the subordinating conjunction to do just this, as shown in the examples above.

Column Three: Conjunctive Adverbs

Note the thick line that separates Columns 1 and 2 from Columns 3 and 4 on the Hitching Devices visual. That line signifies important differences. Let’s look first at Column 3, the conjunctive adverbs. These are hybrids, having qualities of both conjunctions (the ability to join) and adverbs (the ability to answer the questions that adverbs answer).

As conjunctions, however acts like but; moreover and furthermore act like and; therefore acts like so. But the conjunctive adverbs have a more educated air than their counterparts over in Column 1. We call the conjunctive adverbs “coordinating conjunctions that went to college.” As such, their work is more refined. Although they still do the work of and, but, and so, they aren’t as willing to break a sweat when doing it. What that means is that however, moreover, furthermore, and therefore will join independent clauses only if a semicolon is on duty. (Yes, they have become a bit demanding now that they have their college degree: No longer do they hitch up two independent clauses with a mere comma.)

If you begin a sentence with however, moreover, furthermore, or therefore, not a single feather will be ruffled. In fact, you’ll be seated at the finest tables. Furthermore, these conjunctive adverbs can pull off a stunt no coordinating or subordinating conjunction would dare to try: They can actually move around, just like adverbs, within their own clauses. Like so:

Moreover, my dog ate my homework.

My dog, moreover, ate my homework.

My dog ate my homework, moreover.

Thanks to their adverbial DNA, you can do this moving-around trick with any of the conjunctive adverbs, as long as you recognize that the placement of the conjunctive adverb affects the rhythm and emphasis of the words in the sentence.

Column Four: Relative Pronouns

You’ll be hearing a lot more about these in Part Two. Relative pronouns deserve their own column because while they join independent clauses, they also can double as subjects of those clauses. However, it might be more accurate to say that they have the status of “near-subjects” or a kind of “second-class-citizen subject.” Here’s why:

I discovered who ate my homework. The who ate my homework part of the sentence is a noun clause. We know that because the entire entity can be

replaced by a pronoun: I discovered it. Incidentally, a clause that is ushered in by a relative pronoun is called, as you might expect, a relative clause.

Commas signal inversions. When the relative or subordinate clause is placed out of the main clause-subordinate clause order, the commas get to work

The relative pronoun doesn’t have to take the place of the subject of the relative clause. In the sentence The soup was cold when it arrived, the relative clause has a true subject (it) in addition to the relative pronoun that ushers it in. This kind of relative clause would be considered an adverb clause since it answers the adverbial question when? As an adverbial structure, it is licensed to move around. Other options are:

When it arrived, the soup was cold.

The soup, when it arrived, was cold.

When it comes to building sentences and developing a sophisticated style, the Hitching Devices visual is extremely important. We suggest posting it in your classroom for ready reference and reinforcement.

Teaching about Prepositions

Through examples and patterns, it’s easy to teach prepositions. Prepositions are easier to understand by these methods than by giving a definition. The definition of a preposition is that a preposition is a word that expresses a relationship between a noun or pronoun, which is its object, and another part of the sentence. That is not very clear. But if you generate a list that follows a pattern, you can show your students just what prepositions are and what they do.

First, we’ll give you a few suggestions for getting your students to recognize that prepositions introduce prepositional phrases. Then, we’ll explain how to apply your students’ knowledge of prepositions to their own language use, mainly writing.

Using Patterns to Teach Students to Recognize Prepositions

We know two old tricks for teaching students to recognize prepositions: One is, according to our philosophy, good; the other, not so much. The one we like goes something like this: Picture a bee and a bottle. Now, put the bee in motion. Anything that the bee can do in relation to the bottle yields a prepositional phrase: in the bottle, on the bottle, around the bottle, across the bottle, and so on. This is a good way for students to learn about prepositions and prepositional phrases because it is visual, fun, and easily learned and remembered. More importantly, it generates a healthy, if incomplete, list of prepositions. From that list, students can deduce the concept of what prepositions do: They express relationships of the nouns that they precede.

The etymology of the word preposition reveals its meaning: pre, meaning “before” and the Latin root pos, meaning “placement.”

The other old and, unfortunately, still popular way to teach students to recognize prepositions is to have them memorize a list of prepositions set to the tune of a familiar song. “Yankee Doodle Dandy” is a favorite. The problem with this method is that it leads to rote memorization rather than a concept.

Students who memorize a rigid list of prepositions are likely to end up thinking that a preposition is any small word. Without a concept to tie prepositions to sentences, students who have nothing but a memorized list can do no more than identify them on worksheets, a nonproductive skill.

Here are two other effective ways for teaching students to recognize prepositions. The first is based on visuals; the second on auditory-rhythmic patterns.

Teaching Procedure: Using Visuals to Have Students Tell You the Prepositional Phrases

Several children’s books and magazine features are appropriate for this activity: Highlights for Children’s Hidden Pictures™, Where’s Waldo? books, and I Spy books are a few. The idea is to have students find things that are hidden and then say where they found them. They will naturally be using prepositional phrases to explain where they found things: on the table, under the plant, in the baseball glove, etc.

Don’t begin the lesson by announcing that it is a lesson on prepositional phrases! To do so would puzzle students in a way that would not arouse their curiosity. Instead, simply give them the “finding-an-object” picture cue. You won’t have to tell them what to do. They will, without your prompting, go to work looking for hidden images. Then, have them tell you where they found things. They won’t know it, but they will be generating a list of prepositional phrases. Write these on the board, but don’t repeat any of the prepositions. Prompt the students to come up with other, more specific words to explain where things are in the picture so you don’t have a list in which every item begins with in or on. (In this sense, this activity is also a vocabulary generator.) Write just the prepositional phrases on the board. When you have a list, ask the students how they would characterize the items on the list: “Are they sentences or just phrases? What do they all have in common?” When the students have collected data from their observations, that is when you say, “And there’s a name for this kind of phrase: We call it a prepositional phrase. The first word in each of these phrases is called a preposition.”

Teaching Procedure: Using Auditory-Rhythmic Patterns to Teach Prepositional Phrases

Write this sentence on the board: Over the river and through the woods, to grandmother’s house we go. Ask the students to expand the sentence by adding places. They should come up with something like . . . and under the water, and around the bend, and across the valley, and beside the lake . . . Then, follow the procedure described above, using inductive reasoning based on observation to generate the properties of prepositional phrases and prepositions.

We believe that there’s no sense in teaching prepositions alone without their function of placing nouns (and that includes noun phrases and pronouns) in relation to the rest of the sentence.

Teaching Procedure: Classifying Prepositions

Because classification is always a good thinking activity, you can give students a list of prepositions and have them classify them into those that tell about time or place or other conditions. Although most prepositions give information about time or place, here are a few that give information about other conditions: concerning, regarding, per, with, throughout, since, despite, by, of.

They Can Identify Prepositional Phrases: Now What? So What?

We include prepositions in this chapter on linking because, through prepositional phrases, prepositions do link their object to another part of the sentence. Subjects express who or what the sentence is about, the “actor.” Verbs express what the subject is doing or being, the “process.” Actors and processes are what sentences are about. The prepositional phrase is an optional part of the sentence, capable of revealing the circumstances. Prepositional phrases give the sentence another dimension by providing adjectival or adverbial information. By that, we mean that they are capable of answering the questions that adjectives answer—which one? (the queen of Romania)—or the questions that adverbs answer—where? (Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house we go); when? (We will have dinner at six o’clock); why? (We donated money to a good cause); to what extent? (We danced for hours).Sometimes, the prepositional phrase reports to the noun, and when it does, it is acting adjectivally. Sometimes, it reports to the verb, and when it does that, it is acting adverbially. But we wouldn’t worry too much about what kind of modifier (adjectival or adverbial) a prepositional phrase is. It’s more important that students learn to embellish their sentences with prepositional phrases, move them around for sentence variety, and use them in accordance with parallel structure.

Students will use prepositional phrases naturally, but once they understand what a prepositional phrase is, they can use this knowledge to improve their writing in several ways:

Content:

1.Simply, prepositional phrases add detail about time and place to a sentence.

2.Conversely, prepositional phrases can contribute to redundancy. Students need to be taught to evaluate their prepositional phrases to make sure that they are indeed adding information and not just taking up space, as in the phrases orange in color, round in shape.

Usage:

1.Except for a handful of indefinite pronouns (some, all, none), the object of a preposition does not affect the subject-verb relationship. Students need to be taught to ignore prepositional phrases that intervene between subject and verb for the purpose of agreement.

Style:

1.Prepositional phrases that begin a sentence create the much-sought variety in sentence structure. This technique not only varies the rhythm of sentences, breaking up the choppiness that occurs when the unskilled writer begins sentence after sentence with the simple subject, but it also sets the stage for the action of the sentence. Students therefore can improve their style considerably when they learn to begin a few sentences with prepositional phrases. Repeated prepositional phrases create parallel structure. Again, the writer’s ability to understand and create parallel structure will result in a noticeable improvement.

2.Because prepositional phrases end on nouns or pronouns, they create a decisive and strong ending for sentences, paragraphs, whole pieces.

3.The one thing we would not say about prepositions is that students should never end a sentence with them. Although ending a sentence with a preposition might not be desirable because prepositions are not strong and are often redundant, ending a sentence with a preposition is not categorically wrong, as commonly believed. Writers who do backbends in order to avoid ending any sentences with prepositions pay a price by creating alternate sentences that can sound too stiff.

We are constantly meeting teachers who say, “Where do I start? What are my students ready for?” In many schools, a scope and sequence for grammar instruction are either not in place or are ineffective. We suggest that starting with prepositional phrase lessons is a good idea because so much measurable writing improvement can result from a few painless lessons.

Conclusion

We hope that at this point, you’ve fortified and filled in the information you need to know about grammar before you feel confident enough to teach it. We hope also that you’re now seeing grammar with new eyes. You don’t need worksheets that don’t work anyway. You don’t need memorized definitions. You need visuals that clarify, connect, reinforce, and remind. You need students to be moving their hands and bodies. You need wordplay. You need authentic language.

In the next part of this book, we’ll take you into the heart of the writing process and show you how to place your grammar instruction right there, where it belongs.